1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications and the Internet, and in particular, to a system and method for delivering advanced intelligent network (AIN) services over the Internet.
2. Background of the Invention
The Internet is being used by an increasing number of people everyday. It has become the communication medium of choice for many people. As more people get “online,” new information, products, and services are being made available over the Internet. Currently, the most common method for accessing the Internet is through a dial-up connection using plain old telephone service (POTS) lines. For additional costs, people may access the Internet using dedicated communication links. For example, DSL, T-1, T-3, and other dedicated communications links are available for high speed Internet access.
Currently, when a subscriber uses a POTS line to access the Internet, the subscriber cannot use the telephone line for receiving calls. As a result, significant communications between calling parties and the subscriber could not be established as long as the subscriber remains online. The problem could be aggravated when the subscriber stays online for hours at a time. Thus, there is a need for a system and method that enables the subscriber to have an opportunity to decide whether he should terminate his Internet session to free up the telephone line to accept an incoming call.
Dedicated communication links have become more common and more affordable. Many people and corporations have 24/7 Internet access using, for example, a DSL. The omnipresent communication session between a telephone service subscriber and the Internet through the dedicated communication link provides unprecedented opportunities for telephone service providers to deliver enhanced telephone services to the subscriber at lower cost via the Internet. However, effective systems and methods for delivering AIN services over the Internet have not been developed until now.
The concept of a subscriber being able to “program” the network so that the delivery of his or her network-based services is customized and tailored to meet his or her specific needs is a powerful concept. However, this concept has in the past been difficult to realize primarily due to the fact that the customer's real-time access to service provisioning is exceedingly hard and expensive to manage in today's secured telecommunication network environment. Although certain AIN services, e.g., Flexible Call Forwarding (FCF), have given the customer, to a limited extent, control over managing call forwarding services, these services have, by and large, left a gap in the marketplace of intelligent network services. Third party service providers have attempted to partially address this gap by providing services and capabilities on the edges of the network without any interactions with AIN capabilities within the network. WILDFIRE (from Wildfire Communications, Inc.) and similar electronic personal assistant services are examples of such third party service providers. With the rise of the Internet as the ubiquitous data network with universal access, new capabilities can be envisioned for interaction of AIN services with Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)-based functionality to enhance customization and customer control.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for managing AIN services over the Internet.